When Mark said Rowley had asked to be excused from Friday’s sitting, Sport Minister Anil Roberts shouted: “Abandoned his post.”

Similarly, when Mark said Chief Whip Marlene McDonald has asked to be excused from Friday’s sitting, Roberts asked: “Gone Brazil?”

McDonald is accompanying Rowley on a trip to the United States. Last Friday, Nileung Hypolite first sat in the Chief Whip’s chair, drawing shouts of “Ay, ay” from the Government. But shortly after Diego Martin North East MP Colm Imbert arrived and Hypolite moved to give him the seat accorded to the Chief Whip.